Learning how to write successfully from academic writers

Abstract

There are numerous books on writing from academic writers, as well as fiction and non-fiction writers. For academic writers who may have had minimal training in writing, these sorts of books provide useful ideas for how to develop the habits of mind to write productively, as well as the skills in crafting their writing for their audiences. Helen Sword's book, Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write is a trade book devoted to the task of informing readers about how successful academic writers work. Sword masterfully integrates findings from her large study of academic writing to support her thesis that to different degrees, successful academic writers share four sets of habits: those of behavioral, artisanal, social, and emotional habits. Beyond this, there are few commonalities to do with how successful academic writers are prepared and how they write. Sword's book elucidates how any academic writer might organize his or her writing life to be successful.